hey all, the other day i came across this quote by Voltaire:
"If God didn't exist it would be necessary for us to invent Him"
looking at ancient civilizations such as the Greeks and the Romans and even before that , they all didn't have an idea about "God"and so they created their own...
my question is how can someone not believe in anything how can you be an atheist?
i do believe that humans have this urge to believe in something bigger than they are no matter what this thing is....
and i said maybe oneday...
I like the antithesis of Voltaire's dictum: "If God did exist, it would be necessary to kill it."
"Ideas have consequences, and totally erroneous ideas are likely to have destructive consequences."
Steve Allen
Being an atheist doesn't necessarily mean not believing in ANYTHING, it means not believing in a higher power that governs it, it means believing that we control our own destiny, there is no fate, anything that happens to us, good or bad, is a result of our actions.
The Voltaire quote suggests that humans need to feel like they can justify the world somehow....whatever they don't understand they say "it's becasue of God", thus, they become the inventors of God for their own purpose.
I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...
To a certain extent, I agree with Charles. Everyone pass out, a preacher just agreed with an Atheist! But it is a fact. Just because you cannot conceive the existence of “God” doesn’t mean you do not believe that man is the highest form of life that can possibly exist. We know so very little for all of our research, and we don’t even know everything that exists right here on Earth. And we are one planet orbiting a backwater star in a big universe. What could possibly lie out there? We don’t really know.
I’m not one of these UFO kooks. When the UFO craze when on in this area, (it made National Headlines), I saw the thing myself. I knew what I was seeing: an experimental aircraft. Later, when the Stealth came out, I knew that was what I had seen. We also have refueling flights go over here, and they can be strange.
No I am just saying we know so little about this universe, that one must believe in something, and if it isn’t God, trust me, they believe in something greater than man. Maybe they don’t want to be controlled by anything, but something is out there to be discovered. Otherwise, why look?
God bless
Pen
Some of us laugh
Some of us cry
Some of us smoke
Some of us lie
But it's all just the way
that we cope with our lives...
Originally Posted by Pendragon
You calling me an atheist? Not that I have anything against Atheism, but I'm not an atheist. I don't beleive in God in the traditional sense (one being who created the world in seven days etc), but I do believe that there is a power greater than humans.
I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...
This dictum presents flawed logic: if God exists, there is no "killing" Him (by very nature of the definition of the word "God") - there is only accepting Him or rejecting Him.
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." - C.S. Lewis
Exactly. The way Alan Watts put it, theism is believing that there is a boss of the universe (a personal god separate from the universe) and pantheism, monism, and atheism all refer to not believing in such an idea.
I see ZERO evidence of a boss, thus I fall into the pantheism/monism/atheism category.
OTOH, many theists believe they actually get messages from the boss, or believe by "faith" that others have (No further comment of that idea.) Other theists claim to just believe in the boss on "faith" because without a boss, they would fear being depressed and hopeless. (This is what Christopher Hitchens calls wish-thinking.).
Of course; the very nature of naturalism automatically eliminates God as a possibility from the beginning, thereby negating any evidence that you might be able to consider. A shame, really.
I think the real "wishful thinking" in the world is the wish that we are in control of ourselves and that we only answer to ourselves. Such an idea is immensely comforting because it allows one to live a fairly irresponsible life with no worry about the ramifications of one's actions - whether good or evil.
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." - C.S. Lewis
Exactly-- opponents of Christianity (and other faiths) often claim we are hoping to comfort ourselves with some kindly man in the sky-- nothing could be further from the truth. Even Nietzsche (a bitter, anti-God man if ever there was) admitted the inherent difficulties and hardships of Christianity (I refer you to "Also Sprach Zaruthustra," specifically the essay called "The Three Transformations of the Spirit"). Christianity is hard. It calls for denial of many desires, and for the hard way over the easy ninety-nine times out of a hundred.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.--Romans 1:7
Please check this out:
http://vocm.org
Based on the evidence, I disagree.
No different, e.g., from Buddhism - except Buddhism precepts and rules tend to make more sense to me - at least the ones for lay people (i.e., not monastics).
Counsel, are you prepared to present your evidence to the court?
Very different, because Buddhism is essentially atheistic in its thrust - so the "harder path" ultimately has nothing beneath it in terms of accountability. If one chooses to ignore the Noble Eightfold Path, so what? But if a Christian ignores what Christ has asked of us, there is an ultimate accountability. Employee performance changes when there is and is not a supervisor on duty.
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." - C.S. Lewis
Most religions emphasize the exact same moral points as Christianity-- mercy, love, compassion, justice, friendship, charity.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.--Romans 1:7
Please check this out:
http://vocm.org
Agreed. Then what need for christianity - particularly?
And BTW - I am asking only you for an answer - and NO ONE ELSE.
wouldn't you consider the fact that Christianity was one of the first most widely spread religions that came up with these values, and many religions were influenced by it.....
but that is not our topic. doesn't everyone have that curiosity about our existence and our mission, who created us and why, the reasonable answer in this case is the easiest one ,and that is the existence of a higher power not necessarily governing us because we have the choice of rejecting and accepting.
and i said maybe oneday...
Exactly. When something is out of our reach and knowledge, we can easily say ''God wants it to be like that, there must be a reason'' and we can stop thinking about that. When something bad or unexpected happens, blame God; it will be easier to accept it.
At thunder and tempest, At the world's coldheartedness,
During times of heavy loss And when you're sad
The greatest art on earth Is to seem uncomplicatedly gay.
To get things clear, they have to firstly be very unclear. But if you get them too quickly, you probably got them wrong.
If you need me urgent, send me a PM
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